Friday, February 10, 2012

I dabble in just about every craft known to man (except for crochet and knitting - I've never managed to learn either of those). I'm not so sure cakes are a "craft" but on Pinterest they've fascinated me. I wish I could bake these cakes and decorate them the way I've seen. Some of them are elaborate, others are juts plain adorable and cute! Here are a few of my favorites I've "pinned". And by the way, if you have no clue about PINTEREST - it's a must check out website!

Can you say adorable???? An Eric Carle cake - does it get any better than that???

For May I chose the Underground Railroad Block. After my Triple Link Chain I decided I need to work on something a little less stressful. This was the perfect block.

Ever since the first slaves came to America they tried to escape. It was very dangerous to even attempt this. Many succeeded. Many failed. The terminology "underground railroad' came from those who organized this escape method. They spoke in code. People who helped slaves escape were often called "conductors". Safe places where escaping slaves could hide were often called "stations" (usually someone's home). The "station master" was a person in charge of the hiding place. People traveling were often called "passengers" and other times they were referred to as "baggage". Along the "railroad" certain signals and codes were give so the "passengers" knew where the "stations" were. Known signals and codes were hidden in music lyrics and stars in the sky (The North Star, The Drinking Gourd).

There is speculation that quilts were frequently used as signals for slaves to know when it was safe to approach a "station". As great as that makes for a story, the truth is NO evidence has been found to support that quilts were used in the underground railroad. One must remember and understand that many former slaves could not read or write. They were assisted in writing their stories by white sympathizers. Many diaries were written, and they are certainly a valuable source of information about the Underground Railroad. A more reliable source however would be the thousands of interviews that were done by the Federal Writers Project in 1936-1938. These interviews documented many escape routes both on and off the railroad. There is not a single mention in these documents of any quilts being used for other than bedding

If you are interested in more about civil war quilts; a great blog to follow is Barbara Brackman's CIVIL WAR QUILTS. Barbara is a fabulous quilt historian.

Yeah, so I'm a little behind. As usually anyone who knows me, knows this is not an unusual thing when it comes to my blogging. So, I've been slowly chugging through my Civil War Blocks this year. I went home (to my parents) in May & June. I'm a couple blocks behind but hopefully in another couple of weeks I'll be caught up......or close to it.
APRIL - Triple Link Chain
This block KICKED MY BUTT! I've never pulled out so many stitches over and over and over and over! I finally got it acceptable. I'm still 1/8"-1/4" short on half of one side (don't ask, I don't really know how it happened) but I finally got it close enough for me and figured that's all that matters! It's a gorgeous block but really tough. I probably should have hand stitched one part of it but well, I never do what I "should" do.

The Triple Link Chain block represents family ties. Many of the slaves were torn apart from family members. Those who came over on slave ships were sold off one by one - splitting husband and wives, parents and children. Children born into slavery were not guaranteed to stay with their parents. Many slave masters sold off children for profit. Can you imagine? I cannot. Below is the story of John Fields's family. His mother lost 12 children in one day with their plantation master died.

"There was 11 other children besides myself in my family. When I was six years old, all of us children were taken from my parents, because my master died and his estate had to be settled. We slaves were divided by this method. Three disinterested persons were chosen to come to the plantation and together they wrote the names of the different heirs on a few slips of paper. These slips were put in a hat and passed among us slaves. Each one took a slip and the name on the slip was the new owner. I happened to draw the name of a relative of my master who was a widow. I can't describe the heartbreak and horror of that separation. I was only six years old and it was the last time I ever saw my mother for longer than one night. Twelve children were taken from my mother in one day...My mother was later allowed to visit among us children for one week of each year, so she could only remain a short time at each place." (taken from: Split-Up Families - Awesome Stories)

Saturday, March 5, 2011

This year I wanted to learn something new and I decided that would be paper piece quilting. HA! Had I known what I was in store for I might have rethought this plan. Paper piecing is not hard per say but can be a bit confusing. You have to kinda thing backwards and my brain does not do that well. I have a very good friend in the area who is being very patient with me, teaching me as gently as she can! I really appreciate that.

Paper piecing is great way to use your scraps. It's also a great way to get all your points almost perfect.

Here's my first block (it's a church):

There are a few flaws in it but nothing I can't overlook. I really struggled on this one trust me. I have a farmhouse standing by to do next.